


you have galaxies inside you

by serdasenpai



Series: how to begin [2]
Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Mostly Fluff, Some angst, Some funny, also grumpy cara, because what is cara dune without a smart remark here and there, but i also live for the angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:48:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26244415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serdasenpai/pseuds/serdasenpai
Summary: Taken from the ManDADalorian prompt list off tumblr and written by the lovely margarethx!#29 Din tells The Baby bedtime stories about his own childhood.
Series: how to begin [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906015
Comments: 16
Kudos: 37





	you have galaxies inside you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [perihadion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/perihadion/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Astral](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23482876) by [perihadion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/perihadion/pseuds/perihadion). 



> oof. so i did it my friends. this took me waaaaayyyy longer than necessary but its here and its finished and Im so proud of how its turned out!
> 
> anywho, keep scrolling!

The Child was asleep.

He was sure of it. Din glanced over at the little lump bundled in the wood cradle Omera lent him for this very purpose, a hand reaching out to rock it. He never realized how peaceful it could be to watch The Child sleep. Even during his time on Arvala-7 when, after his fight with the mudhorn and The Child had passed out due to exhaustion, he rocked the bassinet but was far too tired himself to really notice The Child's way of sleep. 

Now that things were somewhat at a standstill here on Sorgan, he let the quiet moment consume him, watching the cradle gently sway back and forth, the soft thrum of wood on wood placating a sort of calmness that washed over him in sudden waves. He settled into the mattress with ease--surprisingly, he thought--and considered removing his helmet. Nights on Sorgan were fairly cool and while the rest of his fatigued body received comfort from the softening air, his head felt like a hot rock. 

Across from him, sprawled on her own mattress in the sweet grass, lay Cara, her head tilted back and arms stretched out. She didn't snore, he observed, only breathed heavily, taking in air from her open mouth. He was sure he could hear even the people next door slumbering if he listened hard enough, which he didn't. 

So. Everyone was asleep. It would be fine. He would just wake up before dawn and put it back on. His hands reached for the seal, squeezing a little, and he lifted up, his nose brushing against the lip. Fresh, cool air filled his lungs, a clean, wintry smell, and brought moisture to his eyes, but he didn't mind in the least. It was like being splashed in the face with cold water and the sensation of it all actually calmed him. His limbs loosened as a cool breeze swept in from the window and breathed across the warmed skin of his neck. He shivered, but not because of the cold, but because it just _felt so good._ He felt his jaw go slack and right before he dozed off, it made sense to him why people sometimes looked so silly in their sleep.

The room was still dark when he woke to the sound of The Child babbling nonsense in his ear, a soft little hand pressing against his cheek, insistent. 

Cara swore, turning over on the mattress. "Get him quiet, Mando…"

Bleary eyed, Din scooped up The Child and padded over to the bassinet, whispering, “Please go to sleep. I’m right here.” He tucked him in, shucked back to his own bed, and, not bothering to adjust the blanket, promptly passed out.

The second time he woke--he felt it could not have been but fifteen minutes later--The Child was wailing, a desperate cry of misery, and the dark shadow that had been Cara was gone. Din all but leapt to his feet and charged for the bassinet.

The Child was not in it. 

"Ad'ika?" He turned to the sound of something small shuffling in the corner behind the bed and went to it. He found The Child halfway up one side of the bed frame, the collar of his robe snagged on a jagged slice of the wood and desperately failing to wiggle free. He managed to loosen the cloth from the splinter, rearranging the robes and giving soft, gentle pats. "Ad'ika, ad'ika, ad'ika…" he crooned, slipping The Child into the curve of his arm. "It's been a long day, you know…."

Din slumped in bed, his head resting against the wall, and thought back to a time when he was just a small child much like the one in his arms, of his mother languidly speaking words of comfort while he fretted under the sheets. His father was there too, a tall man with large warm hands that child-Din liked to be carried in, and he tousled his son's hair with those large warm hands. 

"It’s been a long day, it has, but you're awake for a story, aren't you?"

"Yes, papa," child-Din agreed, crawling into his mother's lap. "Tell me something nice."

His father raised his eyebrows at this. "A nice story? Very well then, I will tell you a nice story, and it's one you should never forget…"

Din found himself murmuring the same set of words he never forgot as the child in his arms reached up a hand and patted the side of his face. "Rest, ad'ika, and I will tell you a nice story. I will tell you a nice story, one you shall never forget."

  
  
  


_The view, he gently mused, was incredible. Here, in a rocky cove lying in deep shade, the golden evening air was refreshingly cool and moist, and the silence around them was broken only by a lazy trill of insects. A few yards from the cove was the lake, a large and dark mass of water that slightly curved along one side of the mountain and then sheeted off into a smooth waterfall. Tall, spindly trees, their branches heavy with vegetation, and smooth, round boulders blanketed in moss and leaves, dotted the pebbled terrain around the lake. If it weren't for the crunching, grating sound of wood on stone directly behind him, he might have thought this was nothing but a dream._

"His name is not known," Din thought to mention, "although I suppose it does not matter when it is the story that's important." The child blinked in response.

_He turned to see the woman, her, his companion of many years, pushing a long, narrow canoe across the bed of pebbles. He went to help, laughing at her strained effort, and together they pushed the canoe into the water. He remembered, as he picked up an oar and dipped it in the water, that she insisted they come here, only here, for the fish. At his feet lay the net to catch their dinner, and he thought momentarily about snagging some of those edible grasses to go with it. But when they reached the center of the lake she pulled her own oar in and motioned for him to do the same. He bent to retrieve the net but she shook her head, putting her hand over his._

_"You work so hard the rest of the time," she said. "Don’t worry about the net."_

_They floated in silence for a while, their canoe rocking slightly like a child's cradle, and then it stopped. The canoe had drifted underneath a cluster of trees, their branches heavy with delicate pink flowers, tangled roots plunging down along the embankment and into the water, and he wondered what a beautiful thing it was to be alive under these trees. The surface of the water beneath the trees was blanketed in the petals and more and more perfumed flowers fell into the canoe and in their hair. The golden hour dissipated, clouds parted, and a circular stamp of the white moon revealed itself, bathing them in silvery light._

"Where is this place? I wanna go."

Din startled, almost dropping The Child as he quickly turned away from Cara's silhouetted figure in the doorway.

"Don't worry, bounty hunter. I didn’t see anything."

"I thought you went to sleep somewhere else."

Cara shrugged. "I did, but to be honest, the base of a tree isn’t much of a bed."

Din went to put his helmet back on. "He's just starting to fall asleep again. Probably won’t wake up this time."

"What was that story you were telling him?" 

The Child lazily gurgled nonsense, eyes rolling to the back of his head as Din laid him in the cradle. "Just a story from when I was young. He seemed to like it."

Cara flopped down onto the mattress and yawned. "Right. Well, if you wanna finish the story, don’t mind me. I’m just gonna… you know…"

She never finished her sentence, and as soon as Din listened for the sounds of steady breathing he went to bed. When he dreamed that night, he saw pink flowers swirling on a silver lake and the woman mouthing something to him.

_"Look up," she said, raising her hands, and he looked up, felt the air swiftly leave his lungs, breath taken._

_They were like tiny lanterns, he thought, green ones. There were thousands--no, millions of them, small insects that glowed brightly between the leaves and blossoms and branches of the flowering trees. He reached out to touch one and where it landed on his wrist it left a smudge of a neon hue._

_"You have seen so many terrible things," she said, "so many sad things, and I wish I could pull the sad out of you every time."_

_She took hold of his hand and at that moment he swore he saw stars in her eyes. "It's time you saw something beautiful…_

_You have me, my sweet Din. You have me until every last star in the galaxy dies."_

_The glow faintly grew darker and darker until it dimmed and then completely vanished. He heard his own labored breathing, the waves of the lake slapping against the canoe. He blinked but saw nothing, not even the silver moonlight. He reached out, touching air, grasping at an invisible person._

_The stars--he could not see them, could not find his way, where…?_

_Then he heard it, a voice, and another one, carried across the surface like water on the wind, his mother and father--his stars._

_“Din._

_You will always have us.”_

* * *

  
  
He didnt need to wake to know that it was nearly morning. It was that part of his mind he trained to keep himself alert, an internal clock he knew by heart. As he roused, an unfamiliar ache throbbed in his chest, much like old bruises coming back to surface. He rubbed at the spot, eyes drifting to the cradle and The Child inside it. The Child was awake as well, standing up, a tiny green hand thrust out between the slats.

Din reached out as well, placing his finger in The Child’s smooth palm. “Morning, Ad’ika.” He felt the smallest grip and smiled softly. “It feels good to touch someone, doesn’t it?”

The Child’s mouth parted, his ears went up, and those eyes _glowed_ , so, so dark and yet so brilliant with color.

“My stars,” Din murmured. “I see them in you.”

For the first time, in a long time, Din knew he wouldn’t feel so lonely.

**Author's Note:**

> youre here at the end but dont worry- there will be another prompt! and then the series continues! 
> 
> First things first, I want to thank Perihadion for giving me permission to use their fic as inspiration for the bedtime story Din tells to The Child. 
> 
> Second, to my beta-reader AsunaChinaDoll who puts up with a lot of my weird methods of writing. She actually suggested Din telling the story in his own dialogue and telling it badly because i mean c'mon its been like 25+ years since he last heard this story and i liked that idea. also, The Child's reaction to his stumbling and fumbling and choice of words would be perfection! But I decided to not do that and tell the story as a writer, if that makes sense. so just imagine Din botching up his own childhood stories lol.......
> 
> Thanks so much for reading and as always i really do appreciate comments! seriously, even if it's mumbo jumbo, i love it all!!!!


End file.
